Loeb dominates Spain rally to pick up trophy

The Frenchman led the event from start to finish in his Citroen and was in total control heading into the final four stages with a mammoth 44.4 second advantage over the privateer Citroen of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

And Loeb, who clinched his seventh-consecutive world title on home soil three weeks ago, paced himself to eventually prevail by a margin of 35.3 seconds and seal a landmark success for his C4 WRC.

The win means the car, which has been used by the French marque over the last four seasons but will be retired at the end of the year, has never been beaten on a rally based on asphalt stages.

After his seventh win of the season Loeb said: "We had no pressure for the championship on this event, so we were just able to drive as we wanted. We pushed hard on the gravel on Friday and from then it was a little bit easier to control the advantage."

Solberg held off the challenge of Dani Sordo to finish second, although the Norwegian had been worried that an error during the final stage had dropped him to third.

Jari-Matti Latvala was fourth in the first of the Fords on another disappointing event for the Blue Oval, with team-mate Mikko Hirvonen fifth.